Regular Meeting of the Faculty Senate
Unapproved Minutes
September 17, 2013
The meeting was called to order at 12:26 p.m.
Faculty Senate President Tyler Hoffman noted that a majority of the members were present. He noted further that the group would first address several items not listed on the agenda.
1. A motion was made to approve the minutes from the May 6, 2013 meeting, as previously circulated. The motion was approved unanimously by voice vote.
2. Jennifer Thiel presented the October 2013 Candidates for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Sciences. Joseph Gerver asked Ms. Thiel to check the spelling of one of the candidates’ names, as the name had been spelled differently on a student-proposed major form. With that note, the candidates were approved by unanimous voice vote.
3. Bill FitzGerald, on behalf of the Academic Policy Committee, presented courses for approval. The courses presented included several from the department of fine arts relating to study abroad, representing several disciplines .
- 50 700 374 Music Learning Abroad
- 50 965 375 Theatre Learning Abroad
- 50 080 393 Studio Art Learning Abroad
- 50 080 394 Electronic Arts Learning Abroad
- 50 082 397 Art History Learning Abroad
Other courses presented were:
- 50 203 249 Ballet I (change from 3 credits to BA)
- 50 198 462 Big Data Algorithms
- 56 830 702 Teaching in Psychology
There was discussion and a suggestion to clarify the description of the proposed psychology course to state that TAs are being trained to teach prior to gaining any teaching responsibilities.
All courses were approved by unanimous voice vote.
4. Bill FitzGerald, with the APC recommendation and approval, presented the Digital Humanities Certificate proposal. While the Digital Humanities Committee continues the search for a Center Director, Robert Emmons has been named as the Associate Director and is working to start the Center in Spring 2014. All students pursuing the certificate would take an introductory course, a capstone seminar and a minimum of 4 courses in humanities reflective of their major. A Digital Humanities Committee will be charged with reviewing proposed course offerings according to defined learning objectives. Bill FitzGerald was asked to explain the meaning of “Digital Humanities” and offered …”it means a lot of different things, including using digital tools to analyze texts. It also includes working across multiple texts in data gathering. It involves courses that overlap with media studies; use of digital tools to mine texts; geospatial referencing, etc. This is being seen as an interdisciplinary effort. It requires being computer literate within a humanities field.” The Committee believes that a certificate will give students a legitimacy when going out to compete for internships, etc. A question was asked about why the Committee is proposing a certificate, instead of a minor, as 18 credits are also needed for a minor. Discussion ensued and Jennifer Thiel added that from an advising standpoint, students will want to know the difference between the two. Further comments were made, including that “a certificate describes a program that has some skill-set/professional application” and a suggestion was made to offer it as both a minor and a certificate. A motion was made to change Digital Humanities Certificate to Digital Humanities Minor and Certificate. There was a second to that motion. But before voting, another motion was made to bring these suggestions back to the Committee. The original motion was withdrawn and a vote was called on the second motion; voice vote: 1 nay vote; all other votes in the affirmative.
5. Joseph Martin spoke regarding the proposal of a new B.S. in Health Sciences, the text of which was included in an earlier email to the full Senate. This major is to provide training in basic health sciences, but not at the level of, say, a biology or chemistry major, but at a somewhat lower level to prepare people for jobs in a hospital setting and go on to careers in health-related occupations. An external review is expected in the next week and a list of changes/edits to the proposal is being collected by Allen Woll. Some changes noted, but not yet made in the proposal, include a course in Anthropology and a language requirement. A question was posed: will this major really lead to jobs in a hospital setting that require a BS? Another question/comment was for a clear articulation of the jobs provided by this degree program and course progression. Based on the discussion, a motion was made not to vote until after the meeting with the External Reviewer, when issues have been made more clear, resources identified, and a comparison of similar programs at other universities or colleges can be reviewed. The motion approved by unanimous voice vote. An additional question was posed as to whether outreach had been made to Dean Joanne Robinson, School of Nursing.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:15pm.
Present: Tyler Hoffman, Bill Saidel, Alexander Samokhvalov, Robin Stevens, Rajiv Gandhi, Osama Hamed, William Fitzgerald, Aaron Hostetter, Carol Singley, Paul Bernstein, Margery Amdur, Alsia Belanger, Kate Epstein, Lorrin Thomas, Julie Still, Howard Jacobowitz, Siqi Fu, Joseph Gerver, Melissa Yates, Courtenay Cavanaugh, Ira Rosen, Charlotte Markey, Katrina Hazzard-Donald, Louis Tuthill, Jean-Louis Hippolyte, Wayne Glasker, Cyril Reade, Laurie Bernstein, Jennifer Thiel, Catie Coe
Absent: Simeon Kotchoni, Carla Giaudrone, Haisheng Li, Sean O’Malley, Michael Fortner, Beth Rabinowitz, Kenneth Elliott, Kenneth Hohing